White House under pressure over Obamacare rollout woesBy Matthew Rusling ( Xinhua) 08:58, December 17, 2013 WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 -- The White House remains under pressure over the botchedrollout of President Barack Obama's signature health care plan, or Obamacare, as the law isbecoming increasingly unpopular in polls.
Obama's healthcare rollout has faced myriad problems since the Oct. 1 launch of its websitehealthcare.gov, through which potential buyers were supposed to choose from varioushealthcare plans but instead faced ongoing technical glitches.
Indeed, the poorly functioning website is just the tip of the iceberg. Almost half of thosewith healthcare coverage from an employer said their insurance plans will change in anegative way over the next year, and 77 percent of respondents blame Obama's healthcareoverhaul, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll released Sunday.
Nearly 70 percent said their premiums will increase under the Obamacare, and nearly 60percent said their deductibles and copays are on the rise, it found.
"Democrats should be concerned about health care implementation, " Darrell West, seniorfellow at the Brookings Institution, told Xinhua. "It has been difficult for people to sign upfor health insurance and some people have seen their insurance premiums go up. "
"These problems create great opportunities for Republicans to complain about the law andmake the argument that the administration is incompetent," he added.
Democrats have been wary about embracing the law and defending it against Republicans'attacks. Unless these difficulties get fixed fast, it could pose big problems for Democrats inthe midterm congressional elections in 2014, West said.
Anger is mounting after roughly 5 million insurance policies have been canceled as a resultof the new health care laws, which set stringent new guidelines for coverage that manypolicies did not adhere to.
The Congressional Budget Office predicts that when the law is in full force in 2018, sevenmillion people will see their coverage dropped by their employer and that Medicaid-basedcoverage will surge by 11 million people.
Critics point out that while the Obama administration had predicted 1.2 million newcustomers would sign up for insurance via the troubled website by the end of November, amere 365,000 have signed up.
They also noted that the website has so far cost 677 million U. S. dollars, while experts saidthe site should have cost only around 5 million to 10 million dollars.
In 2012, prior to the law's implementation, 64 percent of Americans already hadhealthcare coverage, with 55 percent covered through an employer and 33 percentcovered under Medicare or Medicaid. Around 10 percent purchased insurance themselves,according to the U.S. Census Bureau. （Editor：ZhangQian、Yao Chun） Related reading
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